Empowering Students in a Digital Age

We hear it at conferences:

"Instead of 1 teacher in the classroom there should be 25."

We read about it in motivational tweets:

We hear it from our peers:

"Use instructional activities that engage your students."

All thought provoking comments...but how exactly can we as educators do this?

A quote from the great modern day philosopher, Tony Horton, provides some valuable insight:

"Information is power and with power there is change and change is good."

Technology is changing and evolving every day and we must adapt.  My one goal is to try to provide some information and a few resources (from the thousands you can use) on how to structure a powerful curriculum to create a classroom of teachers...and...that is good.

 (More words from Tony)

Over a few years of experimenting with blending literacy strategies and technology, three main concepts emerged as to what we must GIVE our students to allow them to control the learning process.

1.  Give students a problem or question:

This site has some excellent ideas as to how to create a driving question.  A solid driving question will be the foundation to get your students critically thinking on their own.  The one essential question that will be used throughout this post is social studies based...but a powerful question can be created in any subject.

What was the most significant event that led to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany?

2.  Give students a voice:

In order for students to take control, they must be given a chance to express themselves. 

There are hundreds of ways to give your students a digital voice in the classroom that will allow them to address a driving question:

Twitter, Voicethread, TodaysMeet, PowToon, SimpleMeet, Vocaroo (Just a few)

In order to give my students a voice, I asked them to create presentations similar to Common Craft Videos. These are explanatory videos that cover a topic in a visually engaging short amount of time.  My all time personal favorite is Zombies in Plain English.  

Each group of students had to research a specific event in Hitler's rise to power and create a video summarizing the event in a set amount of time (Around 2 minutes).

As the educator, I had to teach organization, research, and summary writing skills.  Students had to figure out what valuable information needed to be included without drawing out the presentation and losing viewers interest.  

Student Example using a FlipCam

Behind the scenes

3.  Give students a chance to connect:

Allow your students to view and comment on each others work.  This is the most important step to allow for peer collaboration and learning.  They will be gaining knowledge from each presentation, tweet, and voice or text comment.  After students have had the chance to connect with their peers, they will have acquired enough of an understanding to answer the driving question that was initially presented to them.

As for the videos, I put them into a YouTube channel that allowed the students to view and comment on the various presentations.  

So far, my students have enjoyed this type of classroom environment.  They take pride in their work and enjoy learning from their peers instead of listening to the teacher all period.  

As the educator, it is your job to model the strategies for research and show how to use this information effectively.  You will be teaching students the skills they will need throughout their lives no matter where life takes them.  By giving students a driving question, a voice, and a connection you can let them take control of the classroom.

Thanks for reading and the next time someone tells you to get your students more engaged, do as Tony Horton would do and "fly like a pterodactyl coming in for a landing."  No wait that is not it....

That's better